Something of a mishmash
In response to http://yudkowsky.net/singularity.html
One of the more curious results of science fiction is that it provides the opportunity to "practice" dealing with future events.
In this context, people always bring up the Terminator movies, but the problem has already been solved. Asimov was way ahead of everyone with his laws of robotics - three simple instructions that would completely prevent AI creations from attempting to superceed their creators.
Problem is that this theory doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny - an exponential increase isn't possible. Firstly, it obviously will never reach an infinite rate of advancement, but that's just a mathematical issue. More importantly, it is based on the premise that if you double the computing power of AI in question that you halve the time required for it to reach the next doulbing advance. With every advance that is currently made, you could argue that those involved in its relaisation also become more advanced (intelligent, knowledgable - however you want to classify it) although perhaps not to the same degree as with an AI. It also fails to account for changes in methodology - for example, at the moment, moving from a .13 micron process to a .09 micron process is a fairly simple task, however, once you reach a certain point, you get uncorrectable leakage across paths and you have to find a totally new way to achieve your goal, something which may take orders of magnitude longer to achieve than simply redesigning and modifying an existing concept.
Additionally, is it just me, or does the way that the author refers to the Singularity seem eerily similar to the style of writing used by everyone's favourite nutjob, Gene Ray [http://www.timecube.com/]. The internet is indeed a wonderful place, but with every free and open medium comes a huge range of people with decidedly strange points of view.
Because it is important:
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14296,00.html
The Olsen twins are now road legal. Technically they have been for 2 years over here, but that hasn't stopped me from failing to score with them.
You may all begin rejoicing.
And finally, because it annoyed me at the time:
Following my involvement in a discussion thread regarding the future sale of the Lotus Elise in the US, it dawned on me just own ignorant a lot of Americans seem to be about their cars (Disclaimer: I'm only picking on Americans because of the specific discussion I was involved in).
The car in question, the Lotus Elise:
Has a 1.8 litre engine producing 190bhp. It will do 0-60 in 4.9 seconds with a top speed of 150mph. It also weighs less than 2000lbs - considerably less, in fact.
Engine size is not the only factor in car performance. Your Mustang may have a 5.0 litre engine and produce 390bhp, but it weighs over 3,500lbs and handles like a brick. A Challenger tank produces 1,200 bhp, but you don't see many of them dragging it out with all the suped up Hondas.
The worlds fastest production car is the Koenigsegg CCR and it only has a 4.7 litre engine, albeit one which develops an impressive 806bhp, which for a 2,600lb car is a lot.
So, to summarize - having a 6 litre engine in your 2 ton car does not make it good.
That is all
One of the more curious results of science fiction is that it provides the opportunity to "practice" dealing with future events.
In this context, people always bring up the Terminator movies, but the problem has already been solved. Asimov was way ahead of everyone with his laws of robotics - three simple instructions that would completely prevent AI creations from attempting to superceed their creators.
Problem is that this theory doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny - an exponential increase isn't possible. Firstly, it obviously will never reach an infinite rate of advancement, but that's just a mathematical issue. More importantly, it is based on the premise that if you double the computing power of AI in question that you halve the time required for it to reach the next doulbing advance. With every advance that is currently made, you could argue that those involved in its relaisation also become more advanced (intelligent, knowledgable - however you want to classify it) although perhaps not to the same degree as with an AI. It also fails to account for changes in methodology - for example, at the moment, moving from a .13 micron process to a .09 micron process is a fairly simple task, however, once you reach a certain point, you get uncorrectable leakage across paths and you have to find a totally new way to achieve your goal, something which may take orders of magnitude longer to achieve than simply redesigning and modifying an existing concept.
Additionally, is it just me, or does the way that the author refers to the Singularity seem eerily similar to the style of writing used by everyone's favourite nutjob, Gene Ray [http://www.timecube.com/]. The internet is indeed a wonderful place, but with every free and open medium comes a huge range of people with decidedly strange points of view.
Because it is important:
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,14296,00.html
The Olsen twins are now road legal. Technically they have been for 2 years over here, but that hasn't stopped me from failing to score with them.
You may all begin rejoicing.
And finally, because it annoyed me at the time:
Following my involvement in a discussion thread regarding the future sale of the Lotus Elise in the US, it dawned on me just own ignorant a lot of Americans seem to be about their cars (Disclaimer: I'm only picking on Americans because of the specific discussion I was involved in).
The car in question, the Lotus Elise:
Has a 1.8 litre engine producing 190bhp. It will do 0-60 in 4.9 seconds with a top speed of 150mph. It also weighs less than 2000lbs - considerably less, in fact.
Engine size is not the only factor in car performance. Your Mustang may have a 5.0 litre engine and produce 390bhp, but it weighs over 3,500lbs and handles like a brick. A Challenger tank produces 1,200 bhp, but you don't see many of them dragging it out with all the suped up Hondas.
The worlds fastest production car is the Koenigsegg CCR and it only has a 4.7 litre engine, albeit one which develops an impressive 806bhp, which for a 2,600lb car is a lot.
So, to summarize - having a 6 litre engine in your 2 ton car does not make it good.
That is all
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